The month of August has marked a before and after in the situation of Lanzarote in the face of the Covid-19 crisis, multiplying by more than five all the cases it had up to that moment. On August 1, the island had 102 accumulated cases since March (88 corresponding to the first wave) and only five active cases, while August 31 closed with 551 accumulated cases and 429 active cases.
These figures, which have skyrocketed especially in the last two weeks, have placed the island above the Spanish average in the number of new cases per inhabitant, and Arrecife as one of the most affected areas in the country.
Specifically, in the last 14 days (which is one of the epidemiological indicators used to monitor the evolution of the disease), Spain has registered an average of 205.53 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, while Lanzarote has stood at 214.72. And in Arrecife, that figure shoots up to 519.15 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, even exceeding the average of the Community of Madrid, which was this Monday at 464.61 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants in 14 days, according to data from the Ministry of Health.
In this regard, the Arrecife City Council has stressed that they have been assigned some cases of people who do not actually reside in the municipality, including some tourists (because the reference hospital is in this municipality) and also residents of Playa Honda. And the fact is that although this town belongs to San Bartolomé, its primary care clinic depends on the Arrecife I Basic Zone.
Above Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and only surpassed by El Hierro
However, even considering these factors, the capital's figures more than double the Spanish average in the last two weeks and exceed those recorded on average by any autonomous community. As for the comparison by municipalities and localities, some do exceed the figure of Arrecife.
In the Canary Islands, only the Herreño municipality of Valverde does so, which although it only has 33 active cases, has a rate in the last two weeks of 659.34 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants, as it has a population of only 5,005 people.
As for Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, which has been identified in recent weeks as the main focus of the islands, its figures are also below those of Arrecife, according to data from the Ministry of Health. The capital of Gran Canaria has registered in the last 14 days 491.41 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, compared to the 519.15 that the Ministry assigns to Arrecife.
Regarding the average for the Canary Islands, it was this Monday at 156.54 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants in 14 days (95.62 in 7 days, which is the parameter that the regional government is now using to adopt measures by islands, when more than 100 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants in a week are exceeded). This still places the archipelago below the national average, although above several communities such as Asturias (which is the least affected), Andalusia, Galicia, Valencia and Extremadura.
The figures that the archipelago is suffering now have nothing to do with those it experienced at the beginning of the pandemic, when it was one of the communities with the fewest cases. Only Lanzarote has gone on to multiply in a few weeks all the cases it had accumulated in months. In the entire first wave, 88 cases were diagnosed on the island. However, last week alone 238 were confirmed. And the previous one close to 100, adding a total of 484 new positives in a month.
From "Covid-free" to "hot zone"
The island had technically been "Covid-free" on June 23, when the last patient was discharged. In addition, at that time it had been eleven days without detecting new positives and in the previous two months (April and May, in full confinement) only eight had been confirmed in total.
Most of the cases had been diagnosed at the end of March, with a maximum of 13 positives in one day. However, in recent weeks that figure has been greatly exceeded daily, having reached a maximum peak last Thursday of 69 new cases in just 24 hours, according to data released by the Cabildo, and placing the island as a "hot zone".
However, the other big difference with respect to the first wave is that this time the vast majority of detected cases do not present symptoms or only have mild symptoms. Among other things, this is due to the current tracking system and the change in protocols, which now require testing of close contacts of anyone who tests positive, whether they have symptoms or not.
At the end of March, with only 55 active cases diagnosed on the island, there were 22 people hospitalized, nine of them in the Intensive Care Unit. However, this Monday there were 429 active cases and only ten hospitalized, nine of them on the ward and one in the ICU. That is, with eight times more cases diagnosed than then, there are less than half the admissions. Thus, what has changed is the severity of the cases that are detected, since now many asymptomatic cases are emerging that were not tested before.
Regarding deaths, in the first months of the pandemic there were also six deaths on the island, while from May 7 until last Thursday there had been no new deaths linked to Covid in Lanzarote. However, on Friday came the first, of a 79-year-old woman who suffered from previous pathologies. Now, that is precisely the main fear in the face of the increase in contagiousness. And the fact is that the new wave was mainly affecting young people, but the average age is increasing and the risk is that it will return to the most vulnerable people.
